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Party Music

But if red wedge is a new form of mediation between the labour party and young voters, via popular culture (which doesn't just mean music - there's also been a successful tour of red wedge comics) then so far the message seems to have travelled only oneway - it is easier to trace red wedge's impact on the labour party than the labour party's influence on youth. while municipal socialist policies have tried to provide young people with new opportunities both to participate in music making and to hear a wide variety of sounds and styles, red wedge is concerned to bring out the socialist implications of the music young people already hear and to direct any resulting political interest into the labour party.

How the Other Half Lives

Heffer makes this clear when he argues that 'to a large extent the renewal process has been completed, and now the time has come to consolidate the changes, to translate them into campaigns throughout the country and win support labour cannot remake its social base by simply administering an old sexual consensus that is already exploding prospects he said (again in city limits jul in fact it confused two issues: its own 83, no91) 'it would be a mistake to stand in inner party struggle, and the nuances of a safe seat with a solid, white skilled policy fought over between right and left working class who can't stand blacks or in the party: and a viable electoral strategy, poofs, who'd probably think i was a new one that described just how much and how little the party could do within five years if degenerate.' cl: 'so you're talking about a kind of it were elected to government. naturally, feminism challenges consensus about what constitutes 'normal relations' between men and women within the working class, and it draws on the discontented commonsense shared among women about the balance of power between men and women — that's what gives the women's movement some of its strength.

Britain goes to the Sales

privatisation is one of the major aims of the present government, but the government, probably on purpose, has never given a more precise definition of privatisation than: 'the transfer of ownership from the state to private enterprise of as many public sector businesses as possible'2 or 'suggestions for further loosening the grip of the public sector could be faster growth of private health insurance, increased use of charges for social services and student loans, and more community involvement in the financing and mangement of local schools'.3 why do they do it? It has to mean becoming more outward looking, more interested in improving both the substance and the image of public services; developing contacts with other public sector workers, as well as with workers in the private sector who could either support or threaten action against privatisation if it came that far.

Sport

Sir robert bellinger, himself chairman of the kinloch (provisions) group and lord mayor in 1966—7, s.c. macintyre, deputy chairman of pearl assurance, and a director of charter trust, consolidated city properties and the property holding & investment trust, and sir guy bracewell-smith, director of the park lane hotel, the ritz, eagle star and wembley stadium add the lustre of brass to the sea of silver. Then there is the earl of derby (eton, oxford & the grenadier guards), chairman of the nw area conservative association, member of whites and the jockey club; there is his jockey and turf club cohort the duke of norfolk; and there is an 10 business chiefs they are almost to the man

Arts:

he says the trip has been fixed up d erek c ha p m a n “despite the highest level o f unem ploy­ m ent since the war and persistent doubts about the long-term health and resilience o f the british economy, the record business at least is enjoying a present rate o f trade which belies the stagnation and cutback in other areas, and bodes well for the christmas market prospects. He then contrasts the policies of the independent record by mitch howard s ilv e r d isc f o r a silver age 24 contusion surrounds the reported new year tours of china and the soviet union by english rock revival bands.

Reviews

In two collections of essays der krieg der erinnerungen und die ordung der welt (the war of memories and world order), which was written in 1991as a response to the second gulf war, and weltordungen (world orders), published in 1993, which was an attempt to conceptualise the post-cold war world in more general terms - diner has laid the ground for a broader analysis. this tells us two things about ralph nader: first, that he has a rare combination of qualities amongst environmentalists, political acumen and a sharp wit; second, that he should know better than to write, ‘for readers who want to know what it is really like on the ground to suffer the silent voice of environmental devastation, mark hertsgaard’s earth odyssey is a gripping tour guide ’. i challenge nader and the other environmental luminaries quoted on the cover of earth odyssey to sign an affidavit stating that they have read this book, and can honestly stand by their published hyperbole.

Poems

at night she smooths moisturizing cream into her forehead, neck and cheeks, recalling the way her sweetpeas used to sow themselves, pastels tangling a chickenwire trellis; the sundial oozing moss, shadowless. as she unclasps the watery amethysts, creases around her mouth turn into expressions, the accumulation of unspoken words. elizabeth bartlett  soundings the robin and when i let my black monk tempt to misery, run from the perfection i have set for me, and sit to weep my weak-kneed inability to cope, the robin, on impossibly thin limbs, comes, trampolining.

IDEAS

mao’s political practice too was based both on a general economic analysis of china’s position as a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country but also on an insistence on analysis of each specific situation in its concrete conditions, understanding “what specific position each aspect of a contradiction occupies, what concrete forms it assumes in its interdependence and in its contradiction with its opposite, and what concrete methods are em­ ployed in the struggle with its opposite, when the two are both interdependent and in contradiction, and also after the interdependence breaks down. In 1914, when he was asked to write an encyclopaedia article on marx, lenin read hegel’s logic and noted: “aphorism: it is impossible completely to understand marx’s capital, and especially its first chapter, without having thoroughly studied and understood the whole of hegel’s logic. ”

ARTS

the great conspiracy trial an essay on law, liberty and the constitution by jason epstein “the chicago eight are probably the most non-conspiring conspiracy ever hatched and yet we are going down, it's all a question of intent, the judge will say, and the jury will look over at us nasty eight and come down hard, for the jury will have a difficult time drawing a line between intent to overthrow the government, intent to incite riot, intent to be black, intent to help the vietnamese keep their land., intent to give lsd to everyone who wants and intent to live in a family of man. The real issues were: the need to be charming in relationship to the police in order not to make them appear ridiculous; the need for a female lead in any series to show due respect to the male heroes, in as decorative a way as possible; the need for a visiting actress not to upset the star’s relationship to the audience; and hostility towards actors who speak their mind - particu­ larly if they threaten established images.

Life

O f any new scheme m ust be th a t the abortion is done w ith o u t delay, and by th e suction m ethod this involves sim ply inserting a plastic tube in to th e w om b and creating a vacuum. 'the world of keith waite' appears regularly in the read by 1 3 ,9 2 5 ,0 0 0 m en and w o m e n — o v e r a th ird o f th e a d u lt p o p u la tio n o f b rita in nrs 1970/71 16 

Centre Pages

outside the vikings pub in the main street o f jarrow, i was given a plethora o f reasons and excuses for the present lack o f work, and the men’s appalling prospects for the future. Of course, he didn’t approve o f the marches in the thirties and he was not going to change his mind today, “ all this talk o f protest is a load o f codswallop.

Growing Up

Growing up dick booth fyvel’s‘t h e insecure’ and g oodm an's ‘g ro w in g u p a b s u rd ’ pictures by peter goodliffe mr. fyvel’s book is sub-titled “rebellious youth in the welfare state” and the author explains that what began as a study of juvenile delinquency in relation to modern penal thought and practice broadened into an investigation of a more general disaffection amongst young people and the transformation of a whole society. Because the social analysis which fyvel makes in the second half of his book is wide in scope and because there is a sense of a series of inter-related social changes it is disappointing that he does not attempt to discuss the relationship between those factors which led one person to a drifting gang life on the streets of london and those which moved others when they first read look back in anger.

Miles Davies

humanist; and what one supposes to be catholic values; are closely assimilated to each other in “pickpocket”; and it is evenings i heard them called for the irreducible minimum of ensemble work: one perfunctory chorus stating the themeriff on numbers like “walking” and “ so what”; and no general exposition at all on standards like “bye bye black­ bird” ; then a succession of long solos by davis; stitt; kelly and chambers; invariably in that order; finally; towards the end of the bass solo; miles would move moodily back on stage; a saturnine; almost sinister figure in the shadows; shortly to be joined by stitt in the briefest of codas. It is part of davis’ genius that he has succeeded as no one else has done in heightening the timeless significance of his music without sacrificing its immediate expressiveness, its urgent communication in time; he has somehow bestowed a marvellous complexity and coherence on jazz-as-object without reducing the impact of jazz-as-action.

Soviet Socialism

The new reasoner summer 1957 number 1 soviet socialism by hyman levy u ntil recently the word socialism has been used to stand for many things—a set of ideas about an egalitarian society which some people who called themselves socialists were striving to bring into being, the expression of the aspirations of these people, the historical outcome of economic necessity at some future date, visions of a society in which the wastage and frustrations of capitalism with its ethical and moral contradictions will have vanished, of a society in which human endeavour is planned and directed to the common good. I am merely trying to disentangle the various elements present in soviet socialism, and trying to suggest that those elements present in it, which we of the left in bourgeois capitalist society have found particularly abhorrent, are intimately linked with the special route followed from czarist society to soviet economic socialism.

Broken Bridges

Experience raja ahmed is an iraqi living in britain broken bridges went to baghdad last de• cember to spend christmas with my family. Iraq is only shown to be saddam and the desert; the people of iraq are without faces and voices.

Image Machine

Design rick poynor on new technology and graphic design i m a g e machine a decade ago, the idea that inky-fingered graphic designers might one day set aside their cow gum, scalpels, and drawings boards for a working life at the computer screen would have seemed wildly optimistic. Emigre type-designer zuzana licko - a self-styled 'new primitive', who argues, citing gothic black letter faces, that legibility is what you are accustomed to seeing - has produced a stream of fash- marxism today december 1990  design ionable, geometrical typefaces suited to the flawed, low-resolution output of the macintosh laser printer.

Helen Storey

Fashion acts, a fashion industry initiative to raise elm for aids research and people with aids. I also love its heat and beauty. when did you last visit your where is your favourite holiday what makes you feel secure?

Playing Safe

in the category of best drama series or serial, the judges will shortly be choosing between summer's lease (from the novel by john mortimer), mother love (from the novel by domini taylor), inspector morse (from the books by colin dexter) and traffik, the channel 4 international co-production about the international trade in narcotics. Mark lawson on the state of the art of tv drama playing safe one evening in march, bashful men in dinner jackets will weave through white-clothed tables heavy with grub and grog to receive large facemasks overlaid with gold leaf from whichever junior member of the royal family's turn has come up on the roster this year.

Altered Images

As independent film-maker mandy rose has pointed out: 'although porn is in many ways flawed, and particularly for women, the fact is that porn is the only sphere that exists for a non-moralistic exploration of women's sexual fantasy and desire.' to remove all depictions of sexuality would effectively return us to an era of repressed morality. 25 marxism today november 1988  'page three, sunday sport and the sport draw on a long and british tradition of smut: the sexual innuendo and titillation of the schoolboy joke' despite an array of viewpoints, and seven years after its publication, andrea dworkin's pornography: men possessing women still sets the main agenda for feminist discourse.

Screen Strife

collectively, the itv companies have little to say about black days in the ratings war the increasing conflicts of interest between their businesses and the itv system. They want to reach a different audience: not coronation street's, but hill street blues' (a series that london itv had before channel 4, but buried in its schedules).

Letters Notices

women’s information, referral & enquiry service wires, a national information service, was set up in leeds in october to inform women of the activities of the women’s liberation movement in britain. finally we do not believe that the cp was really the point - the point about the conflict and falterings on red rag was as much to do with the tension that exists for many non-aligned socialist feminists about both their individual connection to socialism and to class, and also about something which is a problem for us all: the movement’s connection to socialist politics in britain. val adah bea a womens liberation magazine spare spare rib subscription rates for 1 year: uk £4.44; europe — £5.00; elsewhere seamail — $12.00; elsewhere air­ mail - $20.00 subscriptions, c/o rib publications distribution linda phillips, 114 george street.

MISSION ENGLAND

Mission england rosalind brunt mission england is in its final phase as a three-year christian campaign centred around the american evangelist, billy graham. it was banal, instrumental and reach-medown: billy graham as insurance salesman for heaven with a string of fragmentary anecdotes, both jokey and fearsome, linked with arbitrary quotations from 'the voice of god'.

MONDALE RAYGUNNED

reagan's second-term popular mandate is accordingly tempered, even under the conventional definition of 'mandate', which overlooks the startling fact that, as usual, almost half of all voting age americans did not bother to vote. Just as the democrats are well-placed to recover congressional seats in the 1986 mid-term elections, so, if good candidates present themselves, they have a good chance to retake the white house two years after that.

Blurred vision

November 1984 marxism today 43 # end of year report: peter kellner , gordon mclennan, joan maynard mp and robin cook mp consider the performance of labour under neil kinnock, interviewed in the last issue of marxism today. peter kellner blurred vision it would be a mistake to exaggerate the point, but one of the most significant moments of neil kinnock's first year as party leader was his appearance with tracey ullman in the comedienne's video of her song, my guy.

Preaching Progress

Apart from the basis issues of ordination and theological tradition, where is the church on this question of women in society? the church, like the rest of society, is only beginning to wrestle with this and a whole lot of people are refusing to face it. the church in britain has never had to respond to a strong marxist party whereas the roman church, in particular, has entered into dialogue with marxist governments, has encountered strong marxist presence within its own membership and has engaged in revolutionary struggle in latin america.